Taking today's psalms in reverse, I'm going to start with Psalm 110.  This psalm is one of the ones most quoted in the New Testament due to its important Messianic themes.

David says, "The Lord [all caps] says to my Lord: 'Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet'" (Psalm 110:1, NIV).

David is saying here that the Lord (Yahweh) is speaking to another person whom David (King of Israel) also refers to as "Lord".

This "Lord" is greater than David and the angels themselves as God tells him to sit at God's right hand.  As Kidner (Psalms: An Introduction and Commentary) points out, in Hebrews 1:13 we see the statement, "to what angel has he ever said, 'Sit at my right hand...'?"  Jesus Christ explains centuries later to a group of Pharisees trying to trick him in Matthew 22:41-46 that this psalm of David refers to the Messiah, and that in it David refers to the Messiah as his "Lord" despite the fact that the Messiah is to actually be a "son" (or descendant) of David, himself.

As Kidner says, "So this single verse [110:1] displays the divine Person of Christ, His power and the prospect before him.  Together with verse 4 it underlies most of the New Testament teaching on His glory as Priest-King" (Kidner 393).

The other verse that Kidner refers to here (verse four): "The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: 'You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek'" (110:4).

The story of Melchizedek is a brief one, told in Genesis 14:17-20: "After Abram returned from defeating Kedorlaomer and the kings allied with him, the king of Sodom came out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King's Valley).  "Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine.  He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram, saying, 'Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth.  And blessed be God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.'  Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything" (Genesis 14:17-20).

Kidner: "The passages which clarify this oracle [in Psalms 110, referring to Melchizedek] are Genesis 14:18-20 and Hebrews 5:5-10 with 6:19 - 7:28.  It emerges from these that both the name Melchizedek (king of righteousness) and his sphere as king of Salem (i.e., of Jerusalem, whose shortened form brings out the meaning, 'Peace') made him a fitting pointer to the one who was to come (Heb. 7:2); that the silence surrounding him in the narrative made him an apt symbol of one who in full reality had 'neither beginning of days nor end of life' (Heb. 7:3); further, that his standing on the Godward side of Abraham, both in the blessing and gifts he gave and in the tithes he received, proved his priority over the whole Abrahamic people, and over the levitical priesthood in particular (Heb. 7:4-19)" (Kidner 395).

There is much more, obviously, to be said about Psalm 110, but I will have to leave it at that as I want to say at least a bit about the other two psalms I read today, as well.

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Psalm 109 is another "imprecatory" psalm, or a call for God to judge the wicked.

David begins with, "O God, whom I praise, do not remain silent" (Psalm 109:1).  He then speaks of what these "wicked and deceitful men" have done to him: "opened their mouths against me", "spoken against me with lying tongues", "attack[ed] me without cause", "in return for my friendship they accuse me", "they repay me evil for good, and hatred for my friendship" (109:2-5).

David then implores God to punish these evil men, voicing various curses against them in verses six through twenty.

Picking it up from verse twenty-one: "But you, O Sovereign Lord, deal well with me for your name's sake; out of the goodness of your love, deliver me.  For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me" (109:21-22).

"Help me, O Lord my God; save me in accordance with your love.  Let them know that it is your hand, that you, O Lord, have done it.  They may curse, but you will bless; when they attack they will be put to shame, but your servant will rejoice.  My accusers will be clothed in disgrace and wrapped in shame as in a cloak" (109:26-29).

"With my mouth I will greatly extol the Lord; in the great throng I will praise him.  For he stands at the right hand of the needy one, to save his life from those who condemn him" (109:30-31).

(Isn't in interesting that both of these psalms, back to back psalms which don't really have anything to do with each other content or theme wise, refer to the image of someone sitting or standing at God's "right hand"?  In 109 it is an image of God standing at "the needy one's" right hand, there to protect him or her.  In 110 it is the Messiah that God is telling, in this oracle or vision given to David, to sit at His right hand.)

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Psalm 108 I won't say much about here except that it combines portions (the triumphant conclusions) of two previous psalms.  Verses one through five are identical to Psalm 57:7-11, while verses six through thirteen are taken from Psalm 60:5-12.  (Kidner points to the use of the word "God" in Psalm 108 as a clue.  It is used only one other time in this fifth section or "Book" of Psalms that 108 is found in, but is used quite frequently in Book II, which is where the other two Psalms are located.)

Kidner's comments on Psalm 108 are interesting: "Two psalm-endings of David, 57:7-11 and 60:5-12, have been joined to make this single piece.  Each had begun under stress, with David hunted in Psalm 57 and defeated in Psalm 60; but each had ended strongly.  The new psalm [108] starts at this more positive point in each of them [...]  For our use, the earlier psalms may well provide for times of personal or corporate peril, but the present one for times which call for new initiatives and ventures of faith" (Kidner 387).

"My heart is steadfast, O God; I will sing and make music with all my soul.  Awake, harp and lyre!  I will awaken the dawn.  I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.  For great is your love, higher than the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.  Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, and let your glory be over all the earth" (Psalm 108:1-5 [/Psalm 57:7-11]).

"Save us and help us with your right hand, that those you love may be delivered.  God has spoken from his sanctuary: 'In triumph I will parcel out Shechem and measure off the Valley of Succoth.  Gilead is mine, Manasseh is mine; Ephraim is my helmet, Judah my scepter.  Moab is my washbasin, upon Edom I toss my sandal; over Philistia I shout in triumph."

"Who will bring me to the fortified city?  Who will lead me to Edom?  Is it not you, O God, you who have rejected us and no longer go out with our armies?  Give us aid against the enemy, for the help of man is worthless.  With God we will gain the victory, and he will trample down our enemies" (Psalm 108:6-13 [/Psalm 60:5-12]).